Lutz stepped off of the stairway and into the main entrance hall of Esper
Mansion, and when he did, Lian, Dev, Sophie, Jain, Aric, and the others
simply knew. They knew Master Noah was gone.

Wearing the Frad Mantle that Master Tajim had passed on to Noah so long
ago, and carrying Noah's mighty staff, Lutz walked across the entrance
hall to the throne in the middle of the room. He sat down in it, ran a
hand through his light blue hair, and looked upon his friends and fellow
students, whom now looked to him as their leader.

"Master Noah is gone," were his first words on the throne, stating what
was already the obvious to everyone present. In response to the
confirmation, Jain broke into fresh tears, and Sophie scooped her into
her arms to comfort her. Aric looked as if someone had just punched him
in the stomach. Dev silently wiped a tear from her cheek.

But Lian stepped forward and approached what was now Lutz's throne.
"Lutz, I'm the oldest here," he began to plead his case. "I should be
the leader."

"Lian, I'm the only one left with any powers," Lutz argued back. "It's
obvious that I should be the leader, and I am."

"Yes, but--" Lian began, but he was cut off as Lutz jumped from his
throne and held Noah's staff (he still didn't consider it his own) before
him.

"Well what if our powers come back tomorrow?" Lian bellowed back. Lutz
had stepped away from the throne and Lian had approached it, so they were
now a few steps away from being in each other's faces. "Then you don't
have that advantage, and I'll still be the oldest!"

"What the hell is wrong with you two?" Sophie suddenly yelled over the
shouting match. "Our parents and families have been killed. Our powers
are gone. Our teacher and mentor is dead. And you two are sitting here
arguing!"

Lutz turned his attention to Sophie. "As leader of the Espers, I must
face head-on any challenge to my authority."

Sophie stepped away from Jain and approached Lutz. "You don't get it, do
you, Lutz?" she asked. "What did I just say? The Espers are
dead! You don't even have a people to lead! We're just
normal Palmans now!"

"Though my powers are weak, Master Noah told me they would be restored to
their full strength," Lutz answered. "I suspect the same is true for the
rest of you."

Shaking her head, Sophie let out a low growl. "None of you get
it," she finally said aloud. "Master Noah was stupid to waste his power
rebuilding this place. Esper Mansion? Hmmpf. What the hell is an Esper
anymore?"

Dev, lost in the middle of the argument, spoke under her breath. "We
need unity right now. Unity."

Lutz turned on Sophie and held the staff in front of him, swinging it
around and slamming its base against the ground. "Enough, Sophie!" he
reprimanded her. "Now listen to me! We're--"

But Sophie didn't want to listen. "Don't you even try to hold that staff
like Master Noah did, Lutz," she said, almost chuckling as she did.
"You're no leader for one simple reason: you don't have anyone to
lead."

Then the room erupted into chaos, with everyone screaming at once. "Hand
over the Frad Mantle, Lutz!" Lian yelled. "I'm the rightful leader!"

"Stop it, all of you!" Dev shouted, her voice once again lost in the
crowd.

But Lutz ignored it all, and focused himself squarely on Sophie, staring
her straight in the eye. Sophie, in return, met the stare head-on.
Finally, the vocal chaos of the room was silenced. "Sophie!" Lutz
screamed, instantly grabbing everyone's attention. He paused for a
moment, then continued.

"Powers or no, we are still Espers, and this is our home. But if you
feel you don't want to be one of us anymore... the door is right behind
you. Feel free to use it."

None of them could believe what they'd just heard. They all just watched
Lutz and Sophie, who both continued to stare each other down. Lutz's
face was a mask of authority, or at least as much as he could find within
him. Sophie wore a look of mild shock.

Shock which eventually turned back into defiance. "Fine," she said at
last, very quietly. "I'm out of here."

She spun on her heels and stormed across the entrance hall towards the
double doors. Jain, completely stunned, started following after her.
"Sophie, no!" she wailed.

And Jain wasn't the only one who was stunned. Lutz, too, simply couldn't
believe she'd called his bluff. And so, not wanting to appear weak
before the others in his first moments of command, Lutz called out to her
again.

"Sophie!" he yelled, trying the best he could to match Master Noah's best
no-nonsense tone. "If you walk out that door..."

Sophie spun on her heels again, turning back towards Lutz. The move was
so sudden that she almost ran into Jain, who was right behind her.
"What?" Sophie sneered, again testing Lutz's authority. "If I walk out
this door, what?"

There was a long pause. All eyes in the room were on Lutz. What
would Master Noah do? he tried to think.

"If you walk out that door," Lutz began, his voice very quiet, "don't
ever so much as think about coming back here again."

A wave of gasps swept through the students. They couldn't believe what
Lutz had just said, and neither could Lutz himself. He'd tried to do
what he thought Master Noah would have done... and he couldn't help but
feel he'd done the exact opposite.

But through it all, Sophie just stared back, indecision filling her mind.
She and Lutz had a lot in common: they were both stubborn, and neither
one of them wanted to appear weak in front of the others. She looked to
the faces of her friends: Dev, Lian, Aric, Jain, and yes, Lutz. She knew
that whatever decision she made would affect the entire future here in
Esper Mansion. Either Lutz's authority as the new leader would be
confirmed, or he'd be seen as an instant failure whose first order after
taking command was to throw one of the few remaining Espers out of the
mansion.

But she had to think about herself, too. She really did feel that the
Espers were dead. The Dezorians killed us, she felt, and by
rebuilding the mansion, all Master Noah did was prolong the agony of
death.

And so she made up her mind.

"What makes you think I'd ever want to come back, Lutz?" she said, and
then she opened the doors, waved good-bye to Jain, and stepped outside.
Then she was gone.

"Sophie!" Jain yelled to the closed doors. She ran for them, ready to
follow her friend, until Lutz called out to her.

"Jain, stop right there!" he yelled, the anger at Sophie's "victory"
evident in his voice.

Jain turned and addressed her new leader. "But Sophie's leaving!" she
pleaded.

"She's made her choice," Lutz agreed flatly.

"Well I'm going after her!" Jain called, her hand again reaching for the
doors.

"No!" Lutz bellowed, taking a step forward and slamming his staff down.
Jain jumped at the sudden outburst but stopped her movement towards the
doors. "No one is leaving. We're all staying here, and that's
final!"

He turned around, stepped back towards his throne, and slouched down into
it. Jain still stood by the doors but lowered her head, silently crying.
Defeated.

Meanwhile, Lian approached Lutz's throne. He stood there for a moment,
looking down at Lutz, before the Espers' new fifteen year-old leader
looked back up at him.

"Are you still sure I shouldn't be leader?" Lian asked with a sneer.
Then he stormed across the entrance hall towards the stairs.

The next several days were tumultuous ones. All of the fighting and
bickering had basically stopped with Sophie's departure from the mansion.
However, as time went on, more and more of the others started to think
that maybe Sophie was right. Without powers, what made them Espers?
What distinguished them from normal Palmans? After coming to that
conclusion, some even took it one step further. Some wanted to join
Sophie out on Dezoris and leave the mansion.

But they all remained silent as to their doubts. Lutz had received his
wish: the others were looking to him as their new leader, and no one was
making a move until Lutz did. The proverbial ball was in Lutz's court.

No one spoke much, even when they were together for meals. All of them
moved their quarters to new wings of the mansion, escaping physically
from the memories of their slain families even if they could not do so
mentally. And while they all moved, some of them did not bother to
unpack, as if they were just spending the night at an inn.

On the other hand, Lutz was a completely different story. While many of
the others wanted to abandon ship, it was up to Lutz to somehow lasso the
remaining fragments of Esper society and unify them into a whole. It was
a task that many men twice the fifteen year-old's age would have balked
at, but it was a task that fell squarely on Lutz's Frad Mantle-clad
shoulders, and he knew of only one way to handle it.

So while the others were exploring new rooms to live in, Lutz was
exploring a section of the mansion that no one, save for Noah and his top
aides, had ever seen before.

Lutz went to the room underneath Noah's-- his throne. On his
deathbed, Noah had telepathically shared with Lutz the knowledge of a
secret passage from this room, the secret "key" inside, and the correct
path through the hidden corridors to the room which housed what Noah had
telepathically described as "the most important objects in all of Algo --
items you must guard with your very life."

After making his way through the twisted corridors and secret tunnels,
Lutz walked into the mansion's most secret room. His eyes immediately
adjusted to the two dim light sources in the otherwise dark chamber.
After blinking several times, he saw that the first (and brightest) of
the two was a shining crystal, which floated in the middle of some kind
of anti-gravity apparatus. The second light source was a sword which
rested on an altar. It emitted a soft glow; a glow which the crystal
captured and turned into a rainbow of colors. After admiring the prism
effect of the crystal, Lutz approached the altar and placed his hand on
top of the sword.

The moment he did so, Master Noah himself appeared in the room with
him.

He jumped back at Noah's sudden appearance, but remained remarkably calm,
for the most part. "Master..." Lutz whispered in disbelief, but after an
awestruck moment, he saw that it was true. Master Noah was here
with him, in the same room.

A closer inspection of the image of his teacher revealed a face that
seemed several years younger than the one Lutz knew. He couldn't tell
exactly how much younger Noah appeared, but it seemed as if a decade or
more had vanished from his face. Lutz also noticed with a bit of
surprise that, although he himself was wearing the Frad Mantle, this...
glowing apparition of Master Noah was wearing it, as well.

"Thank you for coming, Lutz." Noah flashed a smile at his student, but
then got straight down to business. "Time is short, and there is much I
have to teach you. I sincerely wish it didn't have to be this way."

But Lutz was not yet ready for the lesson. "Master, how are you here?"
Lutz asked. "I..." He swallowed. "I saw you die."

"Indeed," Noah nodded. "My soul now rests in Elsydeon, the sword you see
before you. It is the most sacred object in all of Algo, the only object
more sacred than the Aero-Prism you see next to it. Within Elsydeon
rests the souls of all who have fought to protect Algo."

"I see," Lutz said with a slightly amazed smile. Others might have been
absolutely flabbergasted by this revelation, but to an Esper, the
extraordinary was the ordinary.

"Lutz, as I told you, I knew the moment I first saw you, when you were
just an infant, that you would be the Espers' next leader," Noah began.
"I'm sorry you've been thrown into the position, and I am especially
regretful of the situation you have inherited. But there is even more I
must reveal to you. I had intended to store my powers and memories
inside an object I have hidden elsewhere in the mansion, the Telepathy
Ball, which I then planned on passing on to you, so that within seconds,
you would know all that I spent a lifetime learning."

"But you died too suddenly for that to happen," Lutz chimed in.

"Yes. So you must listen well, because you must pass on some of what I
tell you to the other students."

At the mention of the others, the Esper boy and leader shuffled his feet
and looked to the ground. He somehow had the feeling that even though he
was dead, Noah knew exactly what was going on in the mansion... and he
was right. "Lutz, it is absolutely imperative that none of the others
leaves the mansion." He paused. Lutz met his eyes again, and from the
look on his face, Lutz knew that Noah was about to reveal the reason for
this magical meeting. "In fact... the survival of the very system may
depend on it."

The strength of Noah's words intrigued Lutz. "That's what you said to me
before; that it wasn't about you, it was about Algo."

The glowing image of Master Noah nodded. "You know of how I fought
alongside Queen Landale, Myau, and Odin against King Lassic. And how
after that, we faced the evil that had corrupted the king and then
possessed Governor Sirus, Dark Force."

"Of course," Lutz confirmed.

"I spent the short time I had between Lassic's fall and what came to be
known as the Great War studying Algolian history," Noah told his student.
"Lutz... I don't know who he is or where he comes from, but I do know
this: Dark Force has been terrorizing our world for millennia."

"That doesn't surprise me, considering that, as far as I can tell, almost
all of Algo never heard of Dark Force before fifteen years ago.
And the reason we never knew about the demon is thanks to a secret
society of Protectors known as the Desans." Noah chuckled softly.
"Don't even ask how much work and research it took to learn just that.
Regardless, I do not know much about them. I have learned that Dark
Force returns to Algo once every 1000 years, and for as far back as I can
tell, the Desans have stopped him every time. The only thing is that
about one thousand years ago, their history ends."

Lutz blinked. "It just ends?"

"Yes. I can only speculate, but it would seem that after countless
battles every one thousand years, Dark Force defeated the Desans. I'm
sure he was looking forward to taking Algo once the millennium rolled
around fifteen years ago, but myself and the others made sure that did
not happen."

"So..." Lutz started, slowly realizing what it was Noah was getting at,
"did Queen Landale, Myau, Odin, and you make it so no more Dark Forces
will come to Algo?"

After a long pause, Noah admitted softly, "I don't think so, which is why
I was so distraught when I thought I had destroyed the powers of
all of you students. You see, Lutz, I had decided to pass on my
memories through the Telepathy Ball because, without the Desans, Algo is
unprotected... and I have declared it the duty of the Espers to choose a
champion that will protect Algo from Dark Force every one thousand years.
But if all of you were powerless--"

"Then there would be no Espers in nine hundred eighty-five years when
Dark Force returns," Lutz finished. "No one to protect Algo from Dark
Force."

"Exactly." The image of Noah sighed. "It would have been your duty to
lead the Espers and, when the time came, to pass along your powers and
the knowledge of the Esper Duty to the next leader via the Telepathy
Ball. But now..."

"Now, it is vitally important that I restore the powers of the others as
soon as I can. I am Algo's last telemental. If I die without passing on
what I know..." Lutz drifted off, but Noah again sighed.

"Lutz... there is more to it than that. I probed the minds of the others
before I died. It does not look good. I'm afraid that their
grandchildren may never have powers, yet alone Lian and Dev and
the others."

"But that can't happen!" Lutz exclaimed. "There has to be someone here
in one thousand years to choose a Protector! And if that someone is
going to help the Protector fight Dark Force, then he has to have his
Esper powers!"

"You're right, Lutz," Noah agreed. "And that someone may have to be
you."

Any non-Esper probably would have laughed at Noah's statement. Oh
sure, I'll be 1000 years old, but I'll have no physical problem with
coming face-to-face with a demon, so long as the Protector can hold my
arm as I limp up to him...

But Lutz was an Esper, and so instead of laughing, he just
remained silent for a long moment, considering. Finally, he spoke.
"How?"

"The medical bio-unit in the infirmary," Noah revealed. "You can move it
to the room below the throne, and with a few modifications, it can be
made into a cryogenic sleep chamber."

Lutz began to pace the small secret room, the ramifications of what Noah
was suggesting hitting him. "You can wake up every ten years, at which
time you can spend a few weeks, maybe a month, attempting to restore
powers to the students."

"Or to their children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren," Lutz threw
in flatly.

"Lutz, I know this will be hard," Noah sympathized. "Your friend Aric
will be an old man with gray hair and grandchildren, and you'll still
look like a teenager. But please, Lutz. Like I said before: not
for me... but for Algo.

"Lutz, please don't think I'm trying to make you feel guilty... but you
truly are Algo's only hope."

The Espers' new fifteen year-old leader, clad in the Frad Mantle that
both Master Noah and Master Tajim wore before him, stared at the
shimmering light of the Aero-Prism, lost in thought. He figured that if
the glittering piece of rock could show Queen Landale the way to King
Lassic's Air Castle, maybe it could show him which way to go, as well.

He'd remain (almost) forever young while watching his friends around him
have children. Then he'd go back to sleep and wake up a few times and
before he knew it, his friends' great-grandchildren would be on their
deathbeds, while his friends' great-great-grandchildren would appear to
be older than he.

And what if he couldn't restore their powers? That meant that he,
Lutz, son of Rie and adopted son of Nasak, would have to choose a
Protector to battle the Dark Force. Lutz wasn't sure he could
accept that responsibility. If he chose poorly, he couldn't go to the
people of Algo and apologize and promise to do better next time, because
the people of Algo would be gone.

After a few long moments of staring into the Aero-Prism, Lutz came to a
realization, which also gave him his decision. Lutz realized that being
the Espers' leader wasn't just about holding his staff in a menacing way,
or wearing the Frad Mantle. It was about sacrifice. It was about
realizing that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one.
Other peoples' well-being had to come before his own, and Dark Force
running loose without a Protector to end his evil would not at all be
good for the well-being of the people of Algo.

Despite the fact that he had been handed the Frad Mantle a few days
before, it was at that moment that Lutz truly became leader of the
Espers. He turned his gaze from the Aero-Prism to the shimmering image
of his teacher. "My answer is yes, Master Noah," he smiled. "For
Algo."

"So we wake you up in five years?" Jain asked Lutz. The two of them,
along with Lian, Aric, and Dev, stood in what was now, in a sense, Lutz's
bedroom. Perhaps "cryogenic bedroom" would have been a better term.

"The computer will wake me up automatically," Lutz answered. "But if you
were all here to greet me, I would very much appreciate it."

"And you say this is just a warm-up of sorts?" This time the question
was Dev's.

"Yes," Lutz nodded to her. "Usually I will sleep for ten years at a
time. Now, I am only sleeping for five, in order to recharge my powers,
so that I can do something about retrieving the stolen items of Nei as
soon as possible."

Taking off the Frad Mantle, Lutz gently placed it on a hook in the nearby
wall before looking over the assembled group of his friends. Somewhere
along the way, out of the chaos that had erupted after the Dezorians
bombed Esper Mansion, he and his friends had picked up the pieces and
reformed Esper society. Sophie was wrong, Lutz thought, to
think the Espers dead. We are very much alive. But I will be the first
to admit that things will be rather... different for a while.

Lutz looked to Dev, sometimes the only voice of reason in the group. He
glanced at Aric, his childhood friend who was now going ahead into
adulthood while Lutz stepped into a far greater role. A smile was tossed
at Jain, as if to put a final seal of friendship on their rivalry. And
speaking of rivalry, he finally turned his attention to Lian.

"I guess you've received your wish, Lian," Lutz said, offering the oldest
boy a hand to shake. "In a way, you'll be leader of the Espers for the
next five years."

Lian shook Lutz's hand, but also shook his own head. "No, Lutz. The
Frad Mantle is yours. You are our leader. While you're asleep,
I'll just be... the half-leader, of sorts." Both boys laughed.

"Hey, that's what we are," Aric laughed. "Lian, you can be half-leader
of the Half-Espers!"

"It would seem to be an appropriate term," Lutz nodded. "But don't get
used to it. When I awake, I will do everything I can to restore your
powers. I promise."

"We know you will, Lutz," Dev agreed. After that, an odd silence hung
over the room for a moment before Lutz said what was really all that was
left to say.

"In that case... good-night." He climbed into the cryogenic chamber,
laying his back flat on the cold steel. Lian stepped around to the
chamber's controls, pushing a few buttons to set the system's "alarm
clock" at five years' time.

Then, with a final nod to his new leader, Lian pushed the "activate"
button. Lutz's body slid inside the machine. He hid the mild fear he
felt well; no one but Master Noah would have been able to read it on his
face.

A few moments later, his eyes closed, his heart beat slowed, and his
fears vanished as he fell into a state of hibernation.

Epilogue

Lutz stepped into the Dezorian city of Aukba feeling a little travel
weary. Today was his first day awake in five years, and it had already
been a very active one. He had traveled to the Dezorians' four torture
palaces -- the places they liked to call s'dkini -- which they
also sometimes used as vaults of sorts. The Esper leader had traced the
eight stolen items of Nei to the s'dkini: Menobe, Guaron (which
was orginally a morgue), Naval, and the newest s'dkin, which Lutz
found was named after General Ikuto, in honor of his "brave attack"
against "those who would do harm to Dezoris."

It was too dangerous for him to enter the palaces on his own; too many
wild, vicious beasts roamed the palace halls. And besides, with the
force field dome and the Crevice, Esper Mansion really didn't need the
Nei items for its protection anymore. Therefore, Lutz decided that if
the Espers couldn't have the Nei items, the Dezorians would not,
either.

He used his magic to teleport to each one, starting with Menobe, and once
there, he raised the Aero-Prism high into the sky, at the same time
chanting the words of a spell. Within moments, the s'dkin had
simply disappeared. It had not been destroyed; instead it had merely
been hidden to the naked eye. Only with the Aero-Prism would anyone be
able to again see Menobe.

The process was repeated for Guaron, Naval, and General Ikuto's namesake.
After that, his work completed, Lutz decided to take on a personal
mission, and that is what brought him to Aukba. He walked through the
town, this time hiding himself with the Aero-Prism. He had no
actual proof that she was in Aukba -- hell, he didn't even have any
actual proof that she was still alive -- but there was one bit of
unfinished business he felt he had to attend to before doing some work on
restoring the Half-Espers' powers and going back to sleep for ten
years.

Searching with both his eyes and his mind, he scoured the town for
Sophie. She shouldn't exactly be hard to find... Lutz thought.
Just look for someone without green skin.

He was only a few blocks from the President's Mansion and about to give
up his search when he saw her across the street from where he stood,
sitting on a street bench. A quick gasp escaped his mouth... but it was
not a gasp of surprise at seeing his white-haired, exiled friend
again.

Lutz gasped because Sophie cradled in her arms a small baby. This in
itself was not exactly shocking. What was shocking was that,
while the infant's face was very much Palman, with a head of light blue
hair, its skin was a pale green. The child obviously had a Dezorian
father.

Mesmerized, and still invisible thanks to the Aero-Prism, Lutz lowered
the hood of the Frad Mantle off of his head and looked more closely at
the child. He'd thought it was sleeping, but as he looked closer, he saw
the child open its eyes.

They were solid black. The child most definitely had its father's
eyes.

Well... Lutz thought, releasing a deep breath, it doesn't look
as though she'll wish to return. He turned around and started to
step towards the city's gates when a voice behind him made him stop
instantly.

"Lutz?" Sophie's voice called with surprise. "Lutz, are you there? Is
that you?"

Lutz turned around to see that Sophie was looking all over, as if
searching for something she'd seen in her peripheral vision. Reaching
out, Lutz touched Sophie's mind, making her the only person in the town
immune to the hiding effects of the Aero-Prism.

When Lutz became visible, it was Sophie's turn to gasp. She was a twenty
year-old mother of a newborn baby girl. Lutz, however, was still a
fifteen year-old boy.

"Lutz?" Sophie asked again. Strangely enough, her voice was even more
hesitant, despite the fact that she could now see her friend.

"It is me, Sophie," he smiled at her. "I have been in cryogenic
hibernation for the last five years. Today is my first day awake since
only a few days after the mansion's destruction."

Lutz stepped across the street and sat down on the bench next to her.
[No one else in the town can see me or hear me] he told her
telepathically [except for you. I suggest we communicate telepathically,
or else you will appear to be talking to yourself.]

Lutz... I can open my thoughts to you, but I can't put them into your
mind. My powers have never returned.

[Nor have the powers of any of the others] Lutz sighed [and only after
sleeping for five years have mine been returned their full strength.
Master Noah truly used everything inside himself and in us to rebuild the
mansion.] Changing the subject, Lutz turned his attention to the baby.
[But enough of that. Sophie, you've yet to introduce us.]

The proud mother smiled. Her name is Aria.

Lutz quickly looked up at his friend, his eyes wide with honored
surprise. [After my mother?]

Yes. I always thought it was a beautiful name.

[Yes.] Lutz smiled at both baby and mother. [A beautiful name for a
beautiful child.] After flashing her another smile, Lutz shuffled
uncomfortably in his seat on the bench. [Sophie, I have come here for a
reason. I owe you an apology.]

It was my choice to leave the mansion, Lutz.

[Yes, it was. But I was wrong to bar you from ever returning. And that
is why I am here.]

Sophie blinked. You want me to return to the mansion?

Lutz nodded, but also again sighed. [That is what I wanted when I came
here. But I can see you are probably... less than enthusiastic... about
that prospect.]

Lutz, don't get me wrong. I'm very touched that you've searched for
me and made me your offer. It truly does mean a lot to me.

[But?]

But, I've started a new life here in Aukba. I've fallen in love with
a wonderful man, and now, with Aria, we've started a family
together.

[Are you sure you're happy here, Sophie?] Lutz questioned. [How are the
townspeople towards you? Do you face the same hatred we Espers faced
before?]

Sophie shook her head, quick to end Lutz's misconceptions. No, Lutz,
it's not like that at all. I'm very lucky -- the man I fell in love with
is a close friend of the new Pai'tekkan. There are, of course,
some stalwarts who won't see past their old prejudices, but they are the
exception, not the rule. I am very, very happy here, Lutz.

A large smile spread out across Lutz's face. [And I am very happy to
hear it. But know that if you ever wish to return, you have another home
waiting for you at Esper Mansion.]

Sophie reached out and squeezed his hand. Thank you, Lutz. Thank
you. She watched him for a moment more before squeezing his hand
again and nodding.

[What?] Lutz asked with a smile. [What does that nod mean?]

I just asked myself a question, and my nod was the answer. I'm sure
that when we had our... argument... you were just trying to do what you
thought Master Noah would do, right?

[That is correct.] Lutz thought with a frown.

You don't need me to tell you that you failed in that respect. But
Lutz, I must say, even if you have only aged a few days in the five years
since then, you have come a very, very long way towards truly
assuming Master Noah's position of leadership. Even though you still
look like a teenager, you have truly become a man. And so I asked myself
a question, and I came up with this answer. Yes, your father and Master
Noah would both be very proud of you. Very proud indeed.

Lutz bowed his head in modesty at the extremely flattering words. [Thank
you, Sophie. But I should tell you: I serve not for my father, or for
Noah.] He looked up again and met eyes with his friend just as a knowing
grin spread out across his face. [I don't even serve for the Espers.
What I do... is for Algo.]